


Heart Container

by neverminetohold



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: ...sort of, All Just A Dream?, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Dark, Emotional Manipulation, Extremely Dubious Consent, F/M, Friendship, Het and Slash, Joseph Has A Crush, Loss of Identity, M/M, Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Mind Rape, Tentacle Rape, What is real?, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-18 00:46:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5891596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neverminetohold/pseuds/neverminetohold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruvik liked what he saw. After all, two are better than one...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heart Container

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dadcastellanos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dadcastellanos/gifts).



The inky darkness was a heavy weight that pressed on his wide open, unseeing eyes. They played tricks on him with bursting spheres of light, contorted shapes that reached for him with icy fingers.  
  
Hands stretched out before him he took another shuffling step, literally dragging his feet along the ground - Stone? Moss? Corpses? - to avoid tripping and falling. It had happened once, and the experience of being utterly lost, drowning in this empty space with no point of reference, where nothing even remotely resembling the laws of physics applied, had been unsettling as hell.  
  
More so than these creatures he had fought and hidden from, than this nagging feeling that he was fraying around the edges, his thoughts numb and slippery, memories reduced to vague recollections of self and a purpose. - And him. Always him, watching and manipulating, one step behind him, hidden in his shadow, in the corner of his eye, waiting for the right moment to strike...  
  
Or do I have it all wrong and he's here to help? Sebastian pondered that thought, until the pressure and throbbing in his temples became too much.  
  
If only he could remember how he had ended up here in the first place... Somewhere behind him, there was a noise. It sounded like a sigh. A wet, rattling dying breath of something familiar lost.  
  
He rubbed the pads of his fingers together. They were sticky, the liquid coating them warm and coppery; strangely sweet. A feral grin, all teeth, twitched around the corners of his mouth, involuntary like a spasm.  
  
xxx  
  
What does it mean, to be 'Sebastian Castellanos'?  
  
xxx  
  
Perhaps it had happened before and that was why the sight did not surprise him. Whatever the case, he stopped, watching as the darkness peeled away in thick layers that dissolved into a fine mist. It curled around him, chilled him to the bone, squeezed his lungs tight as he inhaled, making his heart stutter for a frantic second.  
  
The coffin was white, framed and adorned with flowers in shades of pink. His baby girl lay inside, cold and still, her body somehow fitting, even though the wooden frame was too small to hold her dreams, her future, all the painful what-if's and could-have-been's of a five-year-old.  
  
He choked on a sob or maybe a scream, tried to bury the need to kill whoever had destroyed all he held dear. The sting of too much alcohol burned at the back of his throat, made him remember that part of the fault lay with him.  
  
Why else would Myra have left him?  
  
The thought conjured a faceless group of mourners into being, friends and extended family that meant well, reduced to strangers, an endless parade of hollow words: pity and sympathy, and the empty promise of a tomorrow where 'they would be okay'.  
  
His hand reached for Myra, seeking comfort or perhaps to offer it, and she jerked away. Her arms were heavy with manila folders; files of missing persons. She buried herself in conspiracy theories until she too was gone, and what had been their cozy little house stood empty and silent.  
  
It was enough to drive a man mad.  
  
xxx  
  
Ruvik licked his lips, flush with power and the memories he had taken infinite care to strip from Detective Sebastian Castellanos; dissecting him, one more insect pinned under his scrutiny - but this one had struggled. Provided him with a challenge, its pain familiar enough to be exquisite, a rare vintage to be sampled and savored.  
  
"No."  
  
Ruvik murmured the word straight into Sebastian's ear, stood so close behind him in the hospital room that his breath disturbed the fine hairs on his neck. It was enough to make the other freeze, forget about escaping. Receptive now to suggestion, his mind finally worn and raw enough to yield under the slightest pressure... Delicious.  
  
"You've come too far to turn back," Ruvik said, voice lowered to lend it the illusion of gentle warmth and genuine care. "Go."  
  
The Detective went and the Haunted parted before him, already recognizing one of their own, a hollow vessel, to be filled and used by their master.  
  
xxx  
  
No, no. Not that way.  
  
xxx  
  
Unlike Sebastian, Ruvik had no qualms to turn around and look at what they had wrought together - a string of corpses with familiar faces:  
  
A Haunted, the barely adequate representation of Myra Hanson, their future target, safe for now, her being a lapdog of MOBIUS.  
  
Juli Kidman, face still twisted and eyes wide open in a beautifully rendered impression of shock and surprise, her throat swollen and bruised in finger-shaped purple.  
  
Poor Joseph Oda, who had not even tried to fight back, content with pleading. Not for his own life. No, of course not. He had looked past his friend and partner, seen Ruvik, despite his guise of darkness, and begged instead for his dear 'Seb'.  
  
Ruvik licked his lips again, the memory like a tasty treat. It had been fun, playing those two against each other, capitalizing on their obvious bond, what it was, and what Joseph had futilely wished to evolve it into.  
  
Only Leslie was left, soothed and gentled with the patience of a loving father, a mailman's child, as the saying went, precious beyond measure, worth fighting and dying for, now that he had become a substitute for Lily in Sebastian's warped mind.  
  
"This is my world. Do you finally understand? You can't keep me here." Ruvik grinned, felt the answering pull and shift of facial muscles that had never suffered severe burns. "But I suppose I should thank you. You've made it so much easier, sending me this perfect, 'expendable' tool."  
  
Tense silence answered his taunt. Somewhere, a mark throbbed and oozed dark blood. Each droplet spilling from the man's clenched fist became a stain on his once immaculate mahogany desk.  
  
xxx  
  
"Nngh."  
  
It was not a sound of protest, his mind too hazy for any thought at all. He shifted, followed the flow of vapor-thin crimson as it twined and undulated around him, teased his skin and hard cock with a liquid touch that changed from hot to cold.  
  
Sebastian moaned again, head thrown back, his naked body and sweat-soaked hair slick and gleaming with blood. It brushed against his lips and trickled down his throat, settled heavily in his stomach.  
  
Movement and pressure against his thighs. They tensed and fell apart, unresisting, leaving him open to the flood that brushed against the twitching ring of muscles and past it, filling and stretching him in a rush of pain and ecstasy.  
  
He came with a shout, too far gone to notice the golden gleam hidden within the blood or to hear the echo of a second voice, that one hoarse and raspy - until it smoothed out. Was that boneless weight draped over his back Leslie or Ruvik?  
  
"Does it matter?" A tongue and moist breath trailed along the shell of Sebastian's ear, followed by the scraping of sharp teeth. "You're mine."  
  
xxx  
  
The door was pushed open with such force that its double-wings crashed against the walls in a shower of plaster. Stark white light flooded in, blinding them. Sebastian felt Leslie flinch away and hide behind him as the SWAT team rushed past them, assault rifles at the ready, barking orders while securing the perimeter.  
  
"Detective Castellanos! Are you all right?"  
  
'Get rid of him. We need to leave,' Ruvik whispered.  
  
The words hit like an electric shock, firing acid between the synapses of Sebastian's brain. He remembered blood and pleasure, the reward given when he twisted, bending himself out of shape... He frowned, lingering on the faint feeling that something was very wrong with him, but it was gone when Leslie squeezed his hand. A cold, almost clinical calm washed over him as Ruvik took a backseat in his mind, leaving him in control of their body.  
  
"I'm fine," Sebastian said. "We just need some fresh air."  
  
The beat officer took in Leslie's state, his quivering lower lip and incessant muttering, and finally noticed the straitjacket he wore, that marked him as a mental patient. He stepped aside with a bland, sympathetic smile.  
  
"You want me to call it in?"  
  
"No, I got it. I'll stay with him until social services send someone to pick him up."  
  
xxx  
  
"What now?" Sebastian asked, easing the stolen, rust-stained sedan around a sharp left turn.  
  
They had slipped away just in time to avoid the descending flock of rabid, camera-wielding media vultures. Leslie had fallen asleep instantly, lay curled into a tight ball on the worn rear seat, while Ruvik guided them through Krimson City's busy streets.  
  
Everything looked picture-perfect as they drove by, except when the neon lights flashed Sebastian saw jagged ruins awash in biting shades of pink and green. Like the afterimage of a half-forgotten terror he could not quite shake. He blinked rapidly and tried to convince himself that it was nothing, would fade away.  
  
The only thing he could hold on to was snoring faintly, safely within reach. And then there was Ruvik, festering in Sebastian's every cell, idly sifting through his thoughts.  
  
'We pay MOBIUS a visit.'

**Author's Note:**

> This is a stand alone, but can be read as a loose sequel to my other TEW fanfiction: "Hooked On A Feeling"


End file.
